Letters to the editor

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Charter schools can be controversial, but they have become a part of our culture. They represent the American dream — an opportunity to receive a quality education, be prepared for life after high school and have the opportunity to make dreams come true.

The education gap is an issue that is negatively impacting our city, our state and our nation. The Fort Wayne Urban League’s strategic plan calls for the elimination of the achievement gap. Minority children continue to lag behind while our world becomes more technical. Now is the time for action. Someone must speak for the thousands of children being left behind.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Martin Luther King Jr. Thurgood Marshall Leadership Academy is our answer to the achievement gap.

Thurgood Marshall is being strategically positioned to make available quality education in south central Fort Wayne. We have high expectations, and we will accept no excuses. The Urban League has contracted with American Quality Schools (AQS), a high-performing education operator. An example of their success can be found in one of their schools in Gary (Thea Bowman), which produced an ISTEP pass rate of 80.7 percent for their third-graders this past year. Traditional public schools in Fort Wayne produced a community high pass rate for third-grade students of 48 percent. We can do better. If Gary can successfully reduce the achievement gap for children, Fort Wayne can as well.

What will make us different is we will utilize the Core Knowledge Sequence, which goes beyond state standards by allowing students to be challenged by a rigorous, sequentially structured curriculum that simultaneously enhances skill development and critical thinking as well as content mastery. Core Knowledge serves as the foundation for college preparatory work.

We are not recreating the wheel. We have recruited an experienced educational provider that gets positive results for minority children in low-income areas. How long can we afford to wait for an academic change, and if not now, when?

The Fort Wayne Urban League has completed a nationwide search for a high-performing school operator in the nonprofit sector AQS as we did for our principal Nicole Chisley, a veteran principal and school leader. We will change the educational paradigm in Fort Wayne. A good quality education is the most important gift you can give your child. You can still get them enrolled at Thurgood Marshall Leadership Academy in most grades (K-8) — call the Urban League at 1-260-745-3100 for more information.

Jonathan C. Ray, Fort Wayne Urban League

My mother-in-law use to say if someone was complaining or worried about something, “Well, all I can say about that is, we live till we die.” That ended the conversation.

That’s the way I’m beginning to feel about Obamacare, the Supreme Court and politics in general. It won’t matter much because if the good Lord doesn’t send us rain soon, the farmers cannot raise their crops and America won’t be the breadbasket of the world anymore and we’re not thankful enough and instead, he sends us whirlwinds, fires, floods, Obamacare, Obama, Supreme Court and Congress is gonna be in the same boat as the rest of us.

They’ll live till they die also.

Carolyn McComas

In response to Michael Collins’ “Pence’s warm, fuzzy ads are an embarrassment” July 10 letter: To me, the ads are refreshing. It certainly beats the dirt and mud-slinging that is today’s usual politics.

Could it be, with so much negativity in the world now, anything nice has become an “embarrassment”?

Mike Pence will have my vote.

Sharon Kirkpatrick